Devil's Journal: Tony T [VN] [Thriller] [Episodic]

[FamuFamu]

Alright, this project is almost done, so I decided to share it here.



Devil's Journal: Tony T

Devil's Journal: Tony T is a Visual Novel built to give the player as much freedom as possible while making every choice have an effect on dialogues and events. Sports over 30 possible endings.

Credits:

Scenario Writing and coding: Ironic Lark (Me by another handle)
Art Direction and main artist: Kiririn51
Music: Garoad

Synopsis

Devil's Journal: Tony T focuses on Antonio "Tony" Albertino, your usual simple-minded boy. His life seemingly changes when her childhood friend Gloria, introduces him to Cira, a girl he's been nuts about for a while now. Cira invites him on a date, however, as the date approaches, you can see Cira behaves in a really nervous way and Gloria seems to have ulterior motives. What will happen once the day arrives?

Characters

Tony



The player's POV, a pretty simple guy with a big love for food (Any food, good or bad)

Cira



Happy and very social... or she should be, but she's been acting really weird lately

Gloria



She's been Tony's friend since they were 2. She's very calm and snarky.

Gameplay

Explore!



Don't be railroaded by the story, pick where you want to go or even skip full hours!

Eye Trance



While in Eye Trance, you can explore the environment to look for clues or even people!

Shining Events

There might be places where it seems like nothing happens... but they might be the place for Shining Events, every time you enter that place, what you get might be completely different than last time.

Journal



Keep track of your playthrough and read entries about the characters and places.

Multiple endings

Every action, as small as it might seem, has a consequence, some might even trigger different endings! Some might be simple while others might be obscure, so keep exploring and get all the 30 endings!

Available in english and spanish

Because bilingual is good

Only the first chapter

This is only the first episode but it doesn't mean it will be short. What's more, the endings you get, ALL OF THEM will be reflected on the next episodes.

Demo

Of course, we have a demo available right now (Note that it's only for windows right now as we test for potential problems on Linux, Mac and Android, but they should be available pretty soon)

Important: Most people seem to be confused with the lack of characterization in this demo, but this was made with the intention of showing a glimpse of what the game is about and not intended to be a chunk of the main game as most demos are. The story shown on the demo, while it shares a lot of things that are in the full release, stuff like starting with a tutorial explaining characters and the ending (maybe?) are not in the game. We will release a new demo near launch that will basically go through one of the routes out of 30 just to clear up things.

Download the Demo at IndieDB

A couple of notes about the demo:

-The exploration is limited to just a couple of places, but there are enough to test the game's features
-There is one (And only one!) untranslated line that we didn't find until the game was already uploaded
-The journal keeps the status screen but the "Diary" and it's entries are disabled
-There's only one ending in the demo, why would we want to spoil them so early?

The game's trailer



More screenshots






Main theme featuring lyrics by JoyDreamerJourney



You can find the game's Soundtrack at Soundcloud

The press release site on english

The press release site on spanish

If you want to keep track, you can always follow our main blog

...although our facebook page is the most surefire way to get constant updates

Of course, any comment, bug report or question is welcome.

[Googaboga]

I looove the art style and the plot is pretty intriguing. I like thriller games so I'm looking forward to that. Do you know how many episodes there will be?

[FamuFamu]

I looove the art style and the plot is pretty intriguing. I like thriller games so I'm looking forward to that. Do you know how many episodes there will be?

Thanks!

There will be a total of 3 episodes, each one of approximately the same length.

[Googaboga]

Cool :]. I personally am not a huge fan of episodic VNs in general ^^;. This one caught my attention anyways. But three episodes isn't bad at all. It's only when there are a bunch of episodes that it starts to bother me.

[ppppantsu]

fell in love with the visuals.
The textures and gradients were beautifully combined in a way that it didn't look overdone. *A*

will play this demo~~~~
this must be really good. *W* <3 <3

[Aruise]

..... TONY IS CUUUTE!! *w*

Anyway, I haven't tried the demo sobusywithschoolthings but the story caught my attention and seems interesting so far. I'd like to know it more, so good luck on this!

[Helianthus]

I finished the demo for Devil's Journal: Tony T and I have some thought I just had to share, so here I come

Firstly, I think you have a very strong artistic direction with beautiful art and music (sounds a bit like the Persona games, by the way). The way you handled the background with that filter works pretty well, it doesn’t contrast that much with the sprites. I didn’t know what to expect but the trailer gave me a yandere vibes and the demo didn’t disppoint in that respect

Some technical stuffs : I think the diary icon should be closer to the border so that it doesn’t take too much place. And the piece of paper inside the diary is a bit too grayish, I think. Would habe been prettier with a little texture (like a parchment). However I didn’t see any option, how can I lower the volume ?

Now the unpleasant part : it’s not that the story isn’t well written, it just isn’t there at all ! Every information was packed into the tutorial bit and then, hello Gloria, hello Cira, the end. That’s really frustrating when you want to learn more because the demo is empty (therefore very short). It’s just like putting a recap in the first episode of a series instead of narrating the past of the protagonist. Who would do that ? Even if it’s a superficial info-dumping, you have to tell the player why he should care about Gloria and Cira, even a little, otherwise the shock ending will lose all its potential (and it’s a shame because I feel your game have a lot of potential ).

Is it that way just because it’s a demo and the first episode begins differently ? What’s the length of the first episode then ?

I hope I’m not too harsh, but I’m really interested in your story and the demo just left me frustrated instead of building hype

[FamuFamu]

I finished the demo for Devil's Journal: Tony T and I have some thought I just had to share, so here I come

Firstly, I think you have a very strong artistic direction with beautiful art and music (sounds a bit like the Persona games, by the way). The way you handled the background with that filter works pretty well, it doesn’t contrast that much with the sprites. I didn’t know what to expect but the trailer gave me a yandere vibes and the demo didn’t disppoint in that respect

Some technical stuffs : I think the diary icon should be closer to the border so that it doesn’t take too much place. And the piece of paper inside the diary is a bit too grayish, I think. Would habe been prettier with a little texture (like a parchment). However I didn’t see any option, how can I lower the volume ?

Now the unpleasant part : it’s not that the story isn’t well written, it just isn’t there at all ! Every information was packed into the tutorial bit and then, hello Gloria, hello Cira, the end. That’s really frustrating when you want to learn more because the demo is empty (therefore very short). It’s just like putting a recap in the first episode of a series instead of narrating the past of the protagonist. Who would do that ? Even if it’s a superficial info-dumping, you have to tell the player why he should care about Gloria and Cira, even a little, otherwise the shock ending will lose all its potential (and it’s a shame because I feel your game have a lot of potential ).

Is it that way just because it’s a demo and the first episode begins differently ? What’s the length of the first episode then ?

I hope I’m not too harsh, but I’m really interested in your story and the demo just left me frustrated instead of building hype

You are not being harsh at all, on the contrary, this kind of feedback is priceless ("Harsh" would be more insults than straight-to-the-point feedback in fact).

With that said, I can tell you that the demo it's not even a scrap on the surface on the introduction of the main game, in fact, the ending here is actually something we put to not spoil anything in the full game. The first episode itself will have a proper introduction and flow, and on the matter of length, it's a debatable point, the full game will have a huge emphasis on exploration and will actually reward side-tracking, so while you could reach any ending rather quickly, it's designed to make you play again and again to see what kind of results you can get.

Truth be told, this demo is one we put up in a bit of a rush a while ago to showcase it on a convention we were part of, but you are right, the infodump might not tell the player why should s/he care about the characters (Then again, we had to limit the times of the day from 3 to 2 and the places you can visit from 10 to 3, so the characterization you can access is, of course, VERY limited).

tl;dr: While the demo might not do justice to the full product, I can assure you the final version addresses all of your concerns.

With that said, if anyone else has a complaint/a piece of their mind, please make sure to let me know.

[Helianthus]

You are not being harsh at all, on the contrary, this kind of feedback is priceless ("Harsh" would be more insults than straight-to-the-point feedback in fact).

With that said, I can tell you that the demo it's not even a scrap on the surface on the introduction of the main game, in fact, the ending here is actually something we put to not spoil anything in the full game. The first episode itself will have a proper introduction and flow, and on the matter of length, it's a debatable point, the full game will have a huge emphasis on exploration and will actually reward side-tracking, so while you could reach any ending rather quickly, it's designed to make you play again and again to see what kind of results you can get.

Truth be told, this demo is one we put up in a bit of a rush a while ago to showcase it on a convention we were part of, but you are right, the infodump might not tell the player why should s/he care about the characters (Then again, we had to limit the times of the day from 3 to 2 and the places you can visit from 10 to 3, so the characterization you can access is, of course, VERY limited).

tl;dr: While the demo might not do justice to the full product, I can assure you the final version addresses all of your concerns.

Well, I’m not used to tell what I think straight to the creator face so I don’t want to discourage anyone

I’m relieved to hear that the demo isn’t the real beginning of the first episode. In fact, your strategy makes sense : the ending really get the player interested in knowing more. But maybe you should say that the demo is a special bit of the game in your description, to be sure nobody will misunderstand (like myself, ahah ).

With the main concern addressed, here are the tricky questions : When will the first episode be released ? (well, approximately) How much will it cost ?

Anyway, hope all goes well for you

[FamuFamu]

Well, I’m not used to tell what I think straight to the creator face so I don’t want to discourage anyone

I’m relieved to hear that the demo isn’t the real beginning of the first episode. In fact, your strategy makes sense : the ending really get the player interested in knowing more. But maybe you should say that the demo is a special bit of the game in your description, to be sure nobody will misunderstand (like myself, ahah ).

With the main concern addressed, here are the tricky questions : When will the first episode be released ? (well, approximately) How much will it cost ?

Anyway, hope all goes well for you

Thanks! Anyways, we've received the same (Or at least very similar) feedback about the demo from other sources, so we are working on it.

About release dates and prices, we are planning a release for March and we are calculating a price around $10-15 for the whole game (The three episodes would come out eventually instead of all at the same time, of course).

[LucaMadison]

I have the Demo installed and I played it. Is awesome! I want the complete game now, hahaha. ♥